Shia constitute about 10% of all Muslims, and globally their population is estimated at between 154 and 200 million. Shia Muslims are in the majority in Iran, Iraq, Bahrain, Azerbaijan and, according to some estimates, Yemen.
Denominations. Islam is divided into two major denominations, Sunni and Shi'a. Of the total Muslim population, 87–90% are Sunni and 10–13% are Shi'a. Most Shi'as (between 68% and 80%) live in mainly four countries: Iran, Azerbaijan, Bahrain, and Iraq.
The divide originated with a dispute over who should succeed the Prophet Muhammad as leader of the Islamic faith he introduced. Today, about 85 percent of the approximately 1.6 billion Muslims around the world are Sunni, while 15 percent are Shia, according to an estimate by the Council on Foreign Relations.
Shias comprise a majority in Iran, Iraq, Azerbaijan, and Bahrain, and a plurality in Lebanon, while Sunnis make up the majority of more than forty countries from Morocco to Indonesia.
Iran has 66 million to 70 million Shias, or 37-40% of the world's total Shia population.
In a poll conducted by Sabancı University in 2006, 98.3% of Turks revealed they were Muslim. Most Muslims in Turkey are Sunni Muslims forming about 90%, and Shia-Aleviler (Alevis, Ja'faris and Alawites) denominations in total form up to 10% of the Muslim population.
The annual rates of growth for the world's Sunni and Shia populations were identical from 1990 to 2000. But the rate of growth of the Shia population is expected to be slightly lower than the rate of growth for Sunnis over the next 20 years.
Iran is the world's largest Shiite country whose main Muslim rival is Sunni kingpin Saudi Arabia.
Islam is practiced by 90% of Egyptians. Most Egyptian Muslims are Sunni and follow the Maliki school of jurisprudence, though all legal schools are represented. Shi'a Muslims make up a small minority.
Twelver Shīʿas constitute the majority of the population in Iran (90%), Azerbaijan (85%), Bahrain (70%), Iraq (65%), and Lebanon (65% of Muslims).
Sunni and Shi'ite Muslims share the same faith and abide by the same five pillars of Islam (Professor 7 Oct. 2003). There are no rules forcing a woman to adopt her husband's particular branch of Islam (ibid.).
Sunni and Shi'a Islam are the two major Islamic sects practised in Pakistan. Pakistan is a Sunni majority country, with 76% of Pakistanis identifying as Sunni and 10-15% estimated to be Shi'ites. Both variations of Islam have many different religious schools that Pakistanis adhere to.
The majority are Sunni (85-90%) while Shias make up between 10% and 15%. However, the Hanbali school is gaining popularity recently due to Wahhabi influence from the Middle East. Smaller minority Muslim populations in Pakistan include Quranists, nondenominational Muslims.
While almost all of Egypt's Muslims are Sunni, there are a small number of Shia. (Estimates of their number range from 800,000 to "at most" three million.)
Qatar is an Islamic state with multi-religious minorities like most of the Persian Gulf countries with waves of migration over the last 30 years. The official state religion is Sunni Islam. The community is made up of Sunni and Shi'a Muslims, Christians, Hindus, and small groups of Buddhists and Baha'is.
Christians reside throughout the country, although the percentage of Christians is higher in Upper Egypt and in some sections of Cairo and Alexandria, according to religious and civil society groups. Scholars estimate that Shia Muslims comprise approximately 1 percent of the population.
Afghanistan is an Islamic state, in which most citizens follow Islam. As much as 90% of the population follows Sunni Islam. According to The World Factbook, Sunni Muslims constitute between 84.7 and 89.7% of the population, and Shia Muslims between 10 and 15%. Other religions are followed by 0.3% of the population.
The Saudi government does not conduct a census on religion or ethnicity, but some sources estimate the Shiite population in Saudi Arabia to make up around 10–15% of the approximately 23 million natives of Saudi Arabia.
Today, Shia Muslims make up the majority of the Iraqi population. Iraq is the location of the holy cities of Najaf and Karbala, pilgrimage sites for millions of Shia Muslims. Najaf is the site of Ali's tomb, and Karbala is the site of the tomb of Muhammad's grandson, third Shia imam Husayn ibn Ali.
The majority of India's Muslims are Sunni, with Shia making up 13% of the Muslim population.
The Safavid conversion of Iran to Shia Islam was a process of forced conversion that took place roughly over the 16th through 18th centuries and turned Iran (Persia), which previously had a Sunni majority population, into the spiritual bastion of Shia Islam.
Ali al-Husayni al-Sistani (Arabic: علي الحسيني السيستاني; Persian: على حسينى سيستانى, romanized: Ali-ye Hoseyni-ye Sistāni; born 4 August 1930), also commonly known as The Grand Ayatollah Sistani, is an Iranian–Iraqi Twelver Shia Ayatollah and marja'.
The Shia Muslims flags usually include the color green in them, which is a symbol of Islam, also a symbol of purity, fertility and peace. Common colors in Shia Muslims flags are red, white and green; common symbols are Lion and Sun, the Zulfiqar and the Shahada.
Sunni and Shia Muslims share many central beliefs, including a belief in the Oneness of Allah (tawhid), and that Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him and his family) was the final Messenger of Allah, who received Divine revelations recorded in the Holy Qur'an.
Shiism developed out of a dispute between the Prophet Muhammad's followers over who would succeed him as the leader of the Muslim community. After the Prophet's death in 632 C.E., some believed that the new leader should come from the Prophet's family.